I've been working out with and through shoulder impingement syndrome since December, try doing decline bench, it removes your shoulders from the equation. My shoulder is about 90% back to where it was, still struggle with heavy OHP and incline DB bench but I can still hit my chest extremely hard with decline bench.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bandito

I started doing a lot of shoulder when I ****ed up my shoulder. Can't do bench press with a bar but at least I am doing them with dumbbells. I do incline, decline and normal bench press with the dumbbells. I use 50-55 for incline and decline and 60-65 for flat surface.

Be careful with wrist straps. I used them for all my pulling exercises for years, and my grip became embarrassingly weak. Took me months of excruciating farmers walks and raw deadlifts to get them caught back up. They have their place but don't become reliant on them.

It's very possible for somebody who eats nothing but McDonalds to look better than somebody who eats typically "healthy" foods. Their lipids and triglycerides are going to be all fcked up, and they will be at a much greater risk for heart attack, but they can be leaner and carry more muscle.

I'm not sure what your exact goals are but I'm willing to bet you're eating too many carbs and not enough protein, and also your calories are simply too high.

It's very possible for somebody who eats nothing but McDonalds to look better than somebody who eats typically "healthy" foods. Their lipids and triglycerides are going to be all fcked up, and they will be at a much greater risk for heart attack, but they can be leaner and carry more muscle.

I'm not sure what your exact goals are but I'm willing to bet you're eating too many carbs and not enough protein, and also your calories are simply too high.

I'm actually trying to gain muscle. I'm not fat at all. Sure, I've recently grown a pudgy stomach and actually made a thread complaining about it maybe 2-3 weeks ago, but I'm nowhere near fat. When I used to go to the gym, I measured my body fat and it was at 6% with 0 muscle tone. Yes, that's skinny as fuck. At the time, I weighed maybe 140+ lbs.
Today, I weigh ~163 lbs. I don't know how much body fat I have, but I'm 99% sure it's not too much higher than it was just a year ago when I still attended the gym.

I am going to have to look up a diet plan and follow it strictly. Maybe you're right that I may be taking in more carbs than protein, which would explain why my stomach has gotten pudgier now than it was before I started eating as "healthy" as I thought I was/am.

Yeah, those look pretty good. Especially for pulling movements. You could even use them as padding for push movements. I might look into them, cause my pulling is getting stronger than my grip.

I've been looking into 'Fat-Gripz'. Read nothing but good things. Anyone have any experience with them?

They are great, I didn't know how to use them the first day to be honest, I kept velcroing them too tight when you're just supposed to have them loosely on your wrists. Once I fixed that I really started to love them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmulls

Be careful with wrist straps. I used them for all my pulling exercises for years, and my grip became embarrassingly weak. Took me months of excruciating farmers walks and raw deadlifts to get them caught back up. They have their place but don't become reliant on them.

My grip is decent, it's holding me back in the sense that my hands give out long before my traps or my back does, which is very annoying when my goal is to build them. For example, I can shrug 465x7 times before my hands start feeling like shit, with the grips I've doubled that rep total.

Absolutely. Nothing but water, except I use 1% skim milk for my oatmeal and protein shakes.

I'm actually trying to gain muscle. I'm not fat at all. Sure, I've recently grown a pudgy stomach and actually made a thread complaining about it maybe 2-3 weeks ago, but I'm nowhere near fat. When I used to go to the gym, I measured my body fat and it was at 6% with 0 muscle tone. Yes, that's skinny as fuck. At the time, I weighed maybe 140+ lbs.
Today, I weigh ~163 lbs. I don't know how much body fat I have, but I'm 99% sure it's not too much higher than it was just a year ago when I still attended the gym.

I am going to have to look up a diet plan and follow it strictly. Maybe you're right that I may be taking in more carbs than protein, which would explain why my stomach has gotten pudgier now than it was before I started eating as "healthy" as I thought I was/am.

It's very difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. I won't say it's impossible because some guys have crazy good genetics, but generally you are either bulking up (calorie surplus) or cutting (calorie deficit). Also, P90x is pretty awful for gaining muscle. It's a decent cardio program (which is why I assumed you were trying to cut) but it's not going to add a lot of size. You would get much better results lifting heavy weight.

It's very difficult to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. I won't say it's impossible because some guys have crazy good genetics, but generally you are either bulking up (calorie surplus) or cutting (calorie deficit). Also, P90x is pretty awful for gaining muscle. It's a decent cardio program (which is why I assumed you were trying to cut) but it's not going to add a lot of size. You would get much better results lifting heavy weight.

Truth. I usually have to alternate. I'll do a few months of purely fat burning stuff (Rushfit for me, or in your case just do the 3 months of P90x), then focus almost solely on heavy lifting for a month, then back to fat burning. From what I've seen its a lot easier to keep muscle mass than it is to stay shredded and slim though, so my "fat burning" stretches are usually longer

Since you all are talking fat, I was 267lbs 3 years ago with about 28% body fat, 2 years of really heavy weight lifting hitting the same body parts twice a week and eating a ton of calories a day and I was 259lbs with 19% body fat. My body composition changed dramatically even though weight stayed relatively the same, fat was replaced with a lot of muscle mass and I went from fat slob to muscular. I've lost even more weight on my cut and my LBM still is over 200lbs, will be starting ultimate diet 2 next week now that I'm approaching my goal weight.

Since you all are talking fat, I was 267lbs 3 years ago with about 28% body fat, 2 years of really heavy weight lifting hitting the same body parts twice a week and eating a ton of calories a day and I was 259lbs with 19% body fat. My body composition changed dramatically even though weight stayed relatively the same, fat was replaced with a lot of muscle mass and I went from fat slob to muscular. I've lost even more weight on my cut and my LBM still is over 200lbs, will be starting ultimate diet 2 next week now that I'm approaching my goal weight.

If you were a total beginner this is not uncommon. A completely untrained person can gain muscle and lose fat at first, but once those beginner gains stall you usually have to commit to either gaining muscle or losing fat.

If you were a total beginner this is not uncommon. A completely untrained person can gain muscle and lose fat at first, but once those beginner gains stall you usually have to commit to either gaining muscle or losing fat.